1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for manufacturing a magnetic head used in a magnetic disc drive, a magnetooptical disc drive, etc.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to improve productivity of magnetic heads, the prior art conventionally arranged a plurality of head elements constituting a magnetic circuit for the magnetic head on a slider wafer. However, processing of a slider has been conducted for every head after the individual heads are separated from each other.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating the conventional manufacturing process of the magnetic heads, wherein reference 1 designates a slider wafer, reference 2 is a plurality of head elements formed in arrays on the slider wafer 1, reference 30 is an array of head sliders without being processed, reference 31 is an array of head sliders obtained by processing the head slider array 30, reference 40 is a head slider cut out from the head slider array 31, and reference 5 indicates a suspension spring for suspending the head slider 40. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the head slider 40 with air bearing surfaces 41 and tapered parts 42.
The manufacturing process of the magnetic head will be discussed below. A plurality of head elements 2 are formed in arrays on the slider wafer 1 through photolithography. The slider wafer 1 is then cut into a plurality of unprocessed head slider arrays 30. Each of the unprocessed head slider arrays 30 is processed through ion beam etching or machining, etc. to define the air bearing surfaces 41 and tapered parts 42, thereby obtaining the processed head slider arrays 31. Subsequently, each processed head slider array is cut into individual head sliders 40 and the suspension spring 5 is mounted on the opposite surface to the air bearing surface 41 of the head slider 40.
Since the magnetic heads are conventionally manufactured in the foregoing manner, although many head sliders are produced at one time, it is necessary to mount the suspension spring on each head slider after cutting the head slider array into individual head sliders. Therefore, productivity of the magnetic heads is disadvantageously low.